Football Team Which Scored 41 Own Goals Receives Lifetime Ban

There is nothing worse than scoring an own goal in a football match, that is unless you score 41 of them.

Well, that's exactly what Nsami Mighty Birds did when they lost 59-1 to Matiyasi FC last month.

In a totally not suspicious at all turn of events, the South African side also had four players sent off, finishing the match with just seven players on the pitch.

Matiyasi were fighting with Shivulani Dangerous Tigers to become fourth division champions this season.

However, after the Tigers defeated Kotoko Happy Boys 33-1, Nsami and Matiyasi are believed to have teamed up to stop them from winning the league.

The two sides had played each other earlier in the season, when it ended in a 2-2 draw and 2-1.

Which is more like what you'd expect from a football match.

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Following an investigation into the recent results, though, all four teams involved have been hit with lifetime bans, and Gawula Classic, who finished fourth, have been handed the title.

President of the Mopani region, Vincent Ramphago, told BBC Sport that it was a 'sad' situation.

He said: "Our investigation found that Matiyasi and Nsami wanted to stop Shivulani from topping the log so they agreed on fixing the match to prevent this from happening.

"What is sad is there are young players involved because the competition rules stipulate that each team has to field at least five players under 21.

"Our main aim in organising leagues is to make sure we groom the young footballers into potential future Bafana Bafana players."

Alamy

The investigation also found there was evidence that the clubs had worked with match officials to engineer the correct results.

Mr Ramphago went on: "When we investigated we discovered that some of the Matiyasi goals were not even [properly registered] because the referee was unable to interpret his report.

"We found the referee was just writing - 'player number 2 scored 10 goals, player number 5 scored 20 goals' and so on - but there were 41 own goals so how were they recording these?"

As a result, staff at the clubs have been hit with sanctions, receiving bans ranging from five to eight years.

Match officials involved in the games have also been banned for 10 seasons.

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Discussing the scandal, Nsami Mighty Birds coach Neil Thwala said his players did what they did because they were angry.

He said: "In the previous match we played, we were told the referee is part of Shivulane Dangerous Tigers.

"We scored four goals but all of them were disallowed by the referee, but then they hit a side net and the referee said it's a goal. When we reported the matter to Safa, we were told that the referee's decision is final.

"The players' minds were not on the game because even if they won, they knew it wasn't going to help them in any way.

"I tried as a coach to push them but it was difficult - there was nothing I could do."